Coachwise:
I'll add my two cents into your question and answer....Did you ever
hear of the flavor of the month. My business career covered about 38
years before I decided to fully retire. During that career, I was a
development chemist, product manager, market manager, and general
manager/president CEO in that order. During that time, I saw the
flavor of the month change from management by objectives, to Dr.
Abraham Maslow's self actualization, to searching for excellence, to
quality circles, to continuous improvement, to happiness is a warm
puppy, to whatever. This idea of "coaching" is one which is supposed
to accomplish the following:
1. A private business owner is often a lonely figure. You can join
Rotary, Lions, Chamber of Commerce, Young President's Association, and
hire support group consultants of which "coaching" is one. The one on
one of coaching gives the business owner someone to talk with about
the common problems of the business and, more importantly, the people
problems/opportunities associated with any business. I did coaching
for several friend's businesses where they involved hiring sons or
daughters and not knowing how to interact with them. My technique was
to be on a Board of Action which met once a month where I acted as the
sounding board for the key actions of the month, their accomplishment,
and the actions of the next month. I could coach the children and the
parents into a communicative relationship with clear ideas about goals
and success. Measuring success is a very important role of
management/coaching. Often, business people fool themselves into
success rather than measuring it with cold, hard figures.
2. Coaching in a public company of a little larger size is the flavor
of the month that allows the senior management to feel good about
their attempts to reach out to the underlings who need to be
understood and to be motivated with something other than money....self
satisfaction...perhaps we are bringing Maslow back a bit.... I have
some regard for consultants (I did some consulting before deciding my
grandsons could keep me fully occupied) but business uses consultants
for mainly devious purposes (please do not search on my name to kill
me). The coaching device is a way of making everyone feel good. I
don't say that it does not have effectiveness but is just another
substitute for strong supervisor/worker (at whatever level)
relationship and communication. Perhaps I should not say "substitute"
since that relationship and communication is a cornerstone of
successful management but is so difficult to achieve. How you
experienced personnel reviews that were not as good commnication
sessions as they should be?? Coaching helps...If done as a outside
consultant working with the manager and worker (at any level), it
generally will deteriorate as time goes on unless the individuals are
determined to communicate and the organization allows them to do so.
OK....so you say..what is the coaching?? Look at the following
websites to see:
www.findyourcoach.com
www.tellboss.com
www.nightingale.com
www.business-personal-coaching.com/
www.businessofattraction.com/
Call me cynical but I think there is no substitute for good
interpersonal communication for successful management. When that is
hard to achieve, coaching can help. It is all about setting goals,
understanding the barriers to achievement, and overcoming those
barriers. Oh, that is also continuous improvement...oops..that is
also quality circles....what...that is also search for
excellence....ok....it is management by objectives.....yup...it goes
back to Maslow.....well...in that case..perhaps to machiavelli.....
seedy
Search Strategy on my mind: remember
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